Finding Rin Tin Tin 2007

     This film is based on the true story of a German Shepherd puppy found by American pilot Lee Duncun in France during WWI.  He was rescued from a basement along with his mother and two siblings.  Owners were found for the mother and the other two puppies.  Duncun was able to get permission to keep Rin Tin Tin because he didn’t have a home.  One condition was that the dog received training.  Duncun was able to arrange for one of the POWs, a German dog trainer Nikolaus Egger to work on training.  Later, Rin Tin Tin became the most famous animal star in Hollywood history.

     I thought this was interesting and good.  Rin Tin Tin was untrained in the beginning and he would not have been able to stay with the soldiers without changes being made.  He was waking the men up when they tried to sleep, he drank liquor from a soldier’s bottle and it made him drunk.  His training made all the difference and he became an asset to the men.  There is a young orphan boy working in the kitchen and the becomes friends with the dog.  It really helps the boy during a trying time for him being without his parents.  3 ½* (I liked this movie) 

90 min, Family directed by Danny Lerner with Tyler Jensen, Ben Cross, Gregory Gudgeon, Steven O’Donnell, William Hope, Todd Jensen, Ivan Rankov, Ian Porter, Garrick Hagon, Michal Yannai, Wesley Stiller, Vlado Mihailov, Atanas Srebrev, Johnathan Sparcino, James Graves.

Note:  Imdb 5.1 out of 10, 48% audience on Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon 3.8* out of 5* with 102 reviews, Letterboxd .5* out of 5* Dennis Reardon.

Special Note:  Filmed in Sofia, Bulgaria.  There is a mistake with the type of rifles.  The rifles carried by the US soldiers are English Number 4, Mark 1.  This is a type of rifle introduced to the English Army twenty years later in WW2.  US soldiers would have carried either Model 1903 Springfield or more likely Model 1917 rifles.  CPL Lee Duncan found Rin Tin Tin but he was not a pilot.  He was an aerial observer.  He sat in the back of the plane and he was armed with machine gun.  He was not a trained pilot and could not fly the plane alone.  If Rin Tin Tin was actually barking during flight, you would not be able to hear barking over the wind and the motor noise.  The name Rin Tin Tin comes from the name of a toy that French children commonly gave to soldiers around the turn of the century.  Duncun was able to get permission for Rin Tin Tin to come to America on one of the ships carrying returning soldiers.  His movie career started with 14 features from 1920-31.  Rin Tin Tin was his original name given to him by Duncan.